Advent of Darkness: Tales of Sorrow and Horror
by Ky Hakubi
Summary: Darkness... I can write a verse and take the sun away. Darkness... Say good bye to light because it's gone today. Darkness... Ain't no smiling happiness is done away. Darkness... Watch me paint a pic that'll make you run away.
1. Revenant

Disclaimer: I don't own these characters, nor do I profit from them. This is an exercise in boredom.

**Revenant**

By: Ky Hakubi

"Ranma, stop picking on Ryoga!" Akane yelled. "Ryoga, stop encouraging Ranma!"

Both young men ignored the fuming woman as they continued to furiously trade blows.

"Ranma! Because of you, I've seen Hell!" the Hibiki youth screamed in rage, arcing a deadly swing at Ranma's head.

"Are you still blaming me for your problems Ryoga?" Ranma asked incredulously, back stepping away from the umbrella aimed at his skull. "You need to get a life!"

Ryoga let forth an unintelligible scream as he repeatedly thrust his weapon, intent on brutally finishing his opponent. The Saotome heir avoided it all with calm control, easily staying a step ahead of the enraged Hibiki.

"Stop it, both of you!" Akane demanded, attempting to break up the fight.

Ryoga, lost to anger, barely recognized that his umbrella hit something soft, and it wasn't his target. Ranma's panicked expression stopped him in his tracks, umbrella froze in the back swing.

He slowly looked left.

He saw Akane sprawled against the wall of the Tendo estate.

She wasn't moving.

There was a slowly enlarging red stain on her blouse.

Something sharp and white peeked through the center of the blotch.

She wasn't breathing.

He registered each of these observations with growing despair. A sharp noise broke him from his paralysis.

"AKANE!!!"

Ranma ran forward to his fiancé's body. He checked for her heartbeat.

Nothing.

Akane was gone.

He cradled her body against his chest, weeping audibly. His shoulders shook as he wailed in agony, a cry of pain from the very depths of his soul.

Akane was dead. She was dead before he could find the courage to tell her that he loved her. Ryoga had stolen that from him. Just as he had stolen the glorious light from Akane's eyes. Stolen her voice. Stolen her life.

Ranma stopped rocking the body of the woman he loved, and stood slowly.

Ryoga fell to his knees as Ranma turned his gaze on him.

His eyes were cold. Dead. No emotion touched them. Not hate, not anger, not loss.

Ryoga couldn't move under that horrific gaze. All he could do was whimper as Ranma slowly walked toward him, ki focusing into his fist.

Ryoga's world went black as the ki charged fist caved in his skull.

---

Life for Ranma had lost meaning. He slowly wasted away, hardly eating or sleeping. He never spoke. He barely registered that anyone was around him. He mechanically went through the motions of life.

After weeks of not practicing martial arts, Genma tried to give him a rude awakening.

He felt like he was getting through to Ranma when the boy looked at him. His hopes were quickly dashed when he saw the lifelessness in those dark orbs. It felt like looking into the eyes of a corpse.

---

Ranma lay in bed some months later, blankly staring at the ceiling. The full moon cast strange shadows about his room.

_tap tap_

Ranma's mind registered the noise at his window, but he gave no indication.

_tap tap_

Maybe they would go away. Everyone went away. No one stayed with him. Everyone left eventually.

_tap tap_

Ranma didn't budge. The noise persisted until dawn broke on the horizon.

---

A few more days passed, and Ranma was lying in bed once again.

_tap tap_

The noise was back.

_tap tap_

Ranma briefly wondered what would be in his window, but the thought soon died.

_tap tap_

He continued to stare at the ceiling, banishing consciousness from his mind.

_tap tap_

_---_

A week later and the noise had visited Ranma every night. It came when the moon was at it's apex, and ceased at dawn. Ranma decided to see what was visiting him in the dead of night.

He lay in bed, as always, and waited patiently for his nightly guest. He wasn't disappointed.

_tap tap_

This time, Ranma looked toward the window. A figure loomed in the moonlight.

_tap tap_

It had the curvaceous figure of a woman. It brought it's hand up again.

_tap tap_

Ranma stood and walked to the window. As he approached, the figure became more visible.

He spoke his first word in almost a year.

"Akane…"

---

She screamed.

The Tendos and Saotomes ran up the stairs to find Kasumi leaned against the wall across from Ranma's bedroom, clutching her knees to her chest, and shaking with tears.

Soun tentatively looked into the young man's room. He almost emptied his stomach at the sight awaiting him.

Ranma lay in a puddle of his own blood, his entrails surrounding him, apparently by his own hand. The far wall was painted in his blood.

It was a message.

'_Akane says Hi'_


	2. Blood Fall

Disclaimer: Don't own these characters. Just another descent into madness.

**Blood Fall**

By: Ky Hakubi

Ryoga was walking down the street past a large construction site, lost yet again. He approached an elderly man for directions.

"Which way to Tokyo?"

The man looked at him oddly.

"Can you tell me how to get to Tokyo?"

The man muttered something in a language that Ryoga didn't understand. It sounded Germanic.

"Oh Akane. Yet again, I long for your presence."

So caught up in thoughts of his dearest love, he failed to notice that he had walked into the construction yard.

"Could you ever accept me as more than your loyal pet?"

A snapping noise came from far above him.

He didn't notice.

A worker managed to get his attention, indicating something above him and screaming.

Ryoga looked up perplexed.

A steel girder slammed into his face.

---

"Where am I know?" He asked as he sat up.

Ryoga looked around, but didn't see the construction yard he was in moments ago. He sighed dejectedly as he realized he was lost again, not that he knew where he was to begin with.

He walked down the block he had woken upon. The sky was a haze of gray and red.

"Must be a little after sunset."

That didn't explain why the large street was abandoned.

The sound of arguing to his left rectified that thought.

"Almost abandoned."

He jogged in the direction of the yelling.

"You un-cute tomboy! I told you already, it's not my fault!"

"You're certainly not doing anything to discourage her you pervert!"

It was Ranma and Akane.

As Ryoga approached the corner he saw Akane rush across the street, obviously crying at some insult he had failed to hear.

"Damn you Ranma! You made Akane cry again!"

Ryoga decided to comfort Akane first, and enact vengeance later.

When he caught up to her, she was sitting by the creek, hugging her knees tightly to her chest.

"A-Akane?" he asked carefully.

"Ryoga?" she managed between sobs.

She kept her face hidden, embarrassed, he thought, to be caught crying.

"Yes Akane, it's me. Are you okay?" He saw her tears as she lifted her head slightly.

They were red.

"Akane, what happened to you?!" He exclaimed, close to panic. "Did Ranma hurt you?"

"Ranma hurt me. You hurt me. Everything hurts Ryoga. Make it stop!" she cried as fresh tears fell.

Light rain fall accompanied them. Ryoga panicked as he was hit by the precipitation.

'_No!'_ his mind screamed. _'Not like this! Damn you for this curse Ranma!'_

Only he didn't change.

Bewildered, he looked at his hands. His human hands.

Warm red drops landed in his palms.

He looked around, confusion only deepening.

The rain was red, and it was falling harder.

"Hurts…Stop… Pain… Blood…"

Akane was rocking herself now.

Ryoga pushed thoughts of the strange rain from his mind and knelt beside Akane.

"I'm here now Akane. Everything's gonna be okay," he said in what he hoped was a soothing tone.

He nervously licked his lips, still not very confident around the woman he loved.

His face screwed in a disgusted grimace.

The rain tasted coppery, metallic… like blood.

Panic set in.

Akane slowly raised her head to meet his gaze.

The blood drained from Ryoga's face.

Her eyes were gone.

---

The foreman nearly vomited at the sight.

Accidents happened everyday on a construction site, but he had never seen one this bad.

A man lay in the yard bent backwards in an unnatural angle with a steel girder impaling the ground where his head should be.

**END**


	3. Void

Disclaimer: Don't own Ranma 1/2, regardless of how cool that would be.

**Void**

**By: Ky Hakubi**

His world was agony. His awareness was laced with pain. He didn't know how long he had been locked in this eternity of suffering, for he had no sense of time.

When he was able to fight the pain, his void gave way to memory. Even this was only a temporary reprieve. His mind would reveal only a green glow and a sense of despair before plummeting back into the well of torment that was his existance.

Sometimes a single word accompanied the green light.

_Hokudan._

Somehow he knew that wasn't the whole of it, much the same way he knew that it wasn't always as it was. That his existance was more than misery.

At times the hell he was in would subside, and an echo would come to his hearing from across the expanse of eternity. A voice so filled with greif that it would make his hell seem like a dull throb in comparison.

When he heard that voice, he would try to scream to whatever gods might have been listening to let him comfort that voice, to ease someone else's suffering, though he was unable to ease his own.

His voice, like the rest of his body, didn't answer to his commands, and his prayers fell on deaf ears.

Another eternity passed, and still he fought against the pain. Something unforgotten, something in the core of his being refused to allow him to give up. It forced him to fight against the fate that had trapped him here, however futile it was. He was Ranma Saotome damnit!

Wait, a name.

_His_ name!

Ranma Saotome. Perhaps his struggle wasn't so futile after all! For the first time in what seemes like eons, he felt a glimmer of hope. He fought back aginst the darkness with renewed vigor, trying to dredge up another memory. Something else of himself that had been lost.

Another memory surfaced. Him standing beside a beautiful woman in a wedding gown. Her face filled his heart with a warmth that held the pain at bay, though he couldn't recall her name.

He held on to the image of her face like a drowning man clings to floatsam.

In an eternity that lasted an instant he was able to put a name to the face of his angel.

Akane.

He would have wept with joy, had he been capable of tears.

Mute shock was all he could manage as his endless vertigo of anguish gave way to a distinct feeling of sinking.

Ranma knew no more.

---

Akane Saotome shed tears she didn't know she had left as the doctor turned off her husband's life support.

Ranma had been in his coma, with no signs of recovery, ever since Ryoga had shown up at their wedding fifteen years ago.

They had just said their vows, shared their first kiss as man and wife, and turned to walk down the aisle when the perpetually lost young man slummped to his knees in despair. Ranma had sensed more than seen Ryoga's will to live fall from his eyes. He had barely managed to throw his bride out of the way before Ryoga uttered the words that led to his own, and eventually Ranma's, death.

Shi Shi Hokudan.

The blast had been one hundred-fold greater than the one Ryoga had used against him those few years before, and it had decimated the park that the wedding services had been held at. Ranma had lost both legs and his left arm in that apocalyptic paroxysm of despondency.

Many of the guests had lost their lives in the suicide blast as well, including Akane's eldest sister Kasumi and their father. Her other sister, Nabiki, had been horribly disfigured and had taken her own life not long after her discharge from the hospital.

It seemed impossible to Akane as she watched her husband's heart monitor signal his final passing, that a man who had once killed a demi-god could be slain in such a fashion. Ranma had seemed almost a god himself, but gods don't die, and Ranma did.

The doctor offered Akane a few words of sympathy, but she didn't hear them. She held her husband's cold hand and let her grief wash over her. She would be strong later. For now, she would mourn the passing of the other half of her soul.

**End**


	4. Dutiful

Disclaimer: Still don't own it...

**Dutiful**

**By: Ky Hakubi**

Ask anyone around, and they'll tell you.

Kasumi Tendo was always a dutiful daughter, and such a happy smile too. She was the kind of young woman anyone could go to for help, or even just idle conversation.

They'd tell you Kasumi was a saint.

Those closest to her always thought her somewhat oblivious. She never seemed suprised. Never seemed upset. Not even her own sisters could tell when she was upset.

Ah, the masks we wear.

Whatever gods there may be, they were merciful the day Kasumi's mask shattered. No one was witness to her fall, save one.

Nabiki had left for Todai in the fall only weeks beforehand to major in economics.

Nodoka had managed to nag, beg, bribe, and threaten Genma into trying to make amends for his many crimes and broken promises, and so the two were roaming Japan searching for those the old fool had wronged.

Ranma had gone off to learn some obscure martial arts technique, and Akane had, of course, followed.

Weeks in the mountains had left both teens yearning for a hot bath, and one of Kasumi delicious home cooked meals.

When they returned they weren't expecting an empty house surrounded by police tape, nor the upsetting red stain on the kitchen floor when they decided to investigate.

They soon found themselves sitting in a stuffy office at the police station unable to process the news.

"I'm sorry," Akane said, a nervous laugh shaking her body, her eyes unfocused. "I must have miss heard you. For a moment I could have sworn you said Daddy and Kasumi were dead."

Ranma lowered his head and put a hand on his fiance's shoulder.

The detective gave her a sympathetic glance before looking away.

"I did. Your father and eldest sister were both killed three days ago. We sent for your other sister, but have received word that she is in a hospital in Bunkyou recovering from traumatic shock."

The detective slid an envelope across his desk.

"We found this near the... Near your sister."

Akane looked at the envelope as if touching it would strike her dead as well. She fought past her fear after a comforting squeeze from Ranma.

As she lifted it, she saw her name in Kasumi's handwritting. Tearing it open, she found a letter from her sister.

_'Dear Sister,_

_I am sorry for the pain you will have suffered to be reading this, but I have no other recourse._

_You have always known that I would do anything to help our family, and so I have. I would have willingly accepted the engagement to Ranma, but I knew that he would be good for you. Let him be your comfort now that I am gone._

_Do not grieve for Father._

_He knew I was the dutiful one as well, and he abused that._

_Not long ago he came to me for comort, weeping. He asked if I would do anything to help him, and like a fool I agreed without hesitaion. He was my father. What wouldn't I do for him?_

_Little did I know what I was agreeing too._

_My innocence was stolen by the very man that gave us life._

_He had dishonored our family, and had dishonored me. I had to answer that dishonor. I was always the dutiful one._

_I have taken his life, and as I finish this letter, I will take mine. I have already sent word to Nabiki, and I fear for her health. She had distanced herself so much after Mother died. Please watch over her Akane._

_I had asked for a promise before, that you would never again strike another in anger, but that promise was broken. I ask for a promise now, the last request I shall ever ask of you._

_Please be gentle with Ranma. Master your anger so there is no more hurt. Please tell Ranma that I ask the same of him._

_Goodbye Akane._

_I love you dearly._

_Kasumi'_

Akane dropped the letter and buried her tear stricken face into Ranma's chest as she let her grief consume her.

**End**


	5. The Scariest Story Ever Told

Disclaimer: Don't own it, yadda yadda...

_**WARNING!!! This tale may cause massive psychotic disturbance in the reader. It's highly likely that calling one of Lovecraft's Elder Gods 'Squid Face' would be less hazardous to your health than reading what follows... YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!**_

**The Scariest Story Ever Told**

**By: Ky Hakubi**

Kodachi laughed...

**End**

**---**

**A/N: **See?! I told ya! Damn near gave myself a heartattack writting that... I think I need to cancel out that evil with a massive Tellytubbies marathon...

On a more serious note, I couldn't resist doing something like that. Don't worry though, the next story 'The Attic' is the real update for this collection of pain and saddness I call Advent of Darkness.


	6. The Attic

Disclaimer: (see previous chapters. I'm too lazy to think of something different...)

**The Attic**

**By: Ky Hakubi**

Dust stirred as Ukyo drew a ragged breath. Soft moonlight shone through the boarded up windows of the decrepit room she found herself in. Her muscles burned with agony as she tried to sit up for a better look at her surroundings.

It looked like a storage room or attic, and the boxes around her labled in Chinese led her to the only logical conclusion. She had been kidnapped by the amazons.They must have drugged her, since she wasn't bound.

She fought against the pain and rose to her feet, stirring the dust on the floor. Dust that looked completely undisturbed, save what she herself unsettled.

_'How long have I been here?' _she wondered silently.

She started to trudge unsteadily across the room until a glint of light caught her eye.

A large mirror stood in one of the moonbeams. Dread filled her heart as Ukyo gazed upon her reflection.

Her once beautiful visage was now a grotesque and decaying thing. Her body was criss-crossed with numerous cuts and her face was caved in. Her skull appeared to have been shattered by a round, blunt object. Something like a bonbari...

Shampoo's favored weapon.

Her breath caught as memories tore through her mind in a flood.

It had been the beginning of summer and she and Ranma had been bonding, sharing memories of their childhood together.

Shampoo took this as too great of an advantage for her to have in the fight for Ranma's heart, so she challenged Ukyo to a duel. Ukyo accepted.

It didn't cross her mind that Shampoo might rig the field when the day of their fight arrived.

Ukyo walked right into it.

The bear trap that snapped around her calf had almost enough force to sever the limb entirely, but it had not. What it did do was remove any hope she had of effectively defending herself from the wild amazon's tortures. Shampoo had a raved smirk on her face as she drew her weapons, a sword replacing her off hand bonbari.

She smacked Ukyo around with her single bonbari, 'Just to soften Spatula Girl up' she had stated, before slicing into her with her wickedly curved blade.

In hindsight, Ukyo regretted accepting a fight outside of the city limits as there was no one to hear her cries of pain.

Her defiance remained strong, and set Shampoo off. Insulting The amazon's entire family's honor led to a mercifully quick death as the enraged woman slammed her bonbari into Ukyo's face, shattering her skull and killing her instantly.

A mournful keen tore itself from Ukyo's body, sounding her grief and fury.

She lurched out of the room. Her body was mangled to unresponsiveness and she stumbled down the attic stairs like a demonic marionette.

She fell into the hallway of the Neko Hanten's living quarters, but sensed no life upon which to enact her vengeance. The faint smell of cooking set her next destination.

Sounds of laughter filled her ears as she stepped into the dining area. Laughter that was at once both flighty and conspiring.

Shampoo's back was to her as Ukyo loomed in the doorway of the kitchen.

Ukyo's wrath intensified as she realized what Shampoo was cooking.

Another potion to force Ranma to love her.

Silent as the grave, the former young woman stalked her prey. She was Death incarnate, and she would have blood.

The open window let in a cool autumn breeze, and Shampoo turned to gaze at the almost full moon.

Ukyo lunged, clawed hands aimed to gouge out the purple haired girl's throat.

Fire lanced through the decayed appendages as Ukyo's hands passed through Shampoo's creamy flesh without so much as a hint of contact.

A shiver danced up Shampoo's spine as she closed the window to ward off the chill, unaware of the apparition shrieking in her face.

**End**


	7. The Last Second

Disclaimer: I do not own these characters. It would be nice though...

**The Last Second**

**By: Ky Hakubi**

Akane.

That's her name, the girl who means everything to me.

It's funny that I can finally admit that now.

That's right. I, Ranma Saotome, am in love with Akane Tendo.

I've known it for quite some time now. I just tried my best to ingore it.

It was that first time she smiled at me, and asked if I wanted to be friends. I thought I was looking at an angel.

Then after her friendly challenge, she said she was glad that I wasn't a boy.

How would she reacted had she known about my curse from the beginning? I know I shouldn't have hidden it from her, but it was still too fresh. Every change clawed at my mind. Every splash of cold water and it felt like I lost a piece of who I was.

That was something I was sure Akane couldn't understand.

I realize now how wrong that assumption was.

She had built her identity on being a high caliber martial artist and retaining her femininity. She was, _is_, a strong and beautiful woman. She has the strength to crush stone, and her smile is enough to make my heart race, yet I tore it away from her with every insult.

Every time she would do something nice for me, I threw it back in her face and crushed her self image. And through it all, not once did I stop to consider the effort she put into her gifts.

Even now, I wonder if she ever looked at me and wished for the shy, lost girl who needed a friend. The same girl whose face she saw every time I transformed...

Instead she is stuck with an egotstical and childish _boy_ for a fiance.

I wish I could go back and change things, to be the man she needed me to be. I've done my best to keep her safe, but that's so small a thing compared to how often it was my fault that she was in danger to begin with.

Damn Kuno and his magic swords...

I'm babbling now... Getting dizzy too.

I love Akane, but I know I'll never have a chance to tell her.

I'm dissappointed with the course my life has run, but that's the only real regret I have. All those wasted chances to tell her. All those chances to hold her in my arms and keep the world at bay.

All those chances to be what we should have been.

How long have I been falling now?

Looking at my life, I can see every time I should have told her. Every kiss I should have given.

I feel cold.

Will Akane be sad? I hope not. I hope she hates me, just like she always says she does.

As much as I want her to love me, to see that smile that filled my soul with warmth, I hope she doesn't. Things will be easier for her then.

At least I can't feel that sharp pain in my chest anymore. My vision has faded too.

So, this the price of my overconfidence.

It's strange, thinking of all this now that it's too late.

I guess everything really is explained in your last second of life.

**End**


End file.
